Terror Puppet

by Windrunner

Strings

'

The battle now close to going on for a sixth straight day has wearied the defiant protectors of the right to near breaking point. A mere few hours stands between them and Ponyville being overrun by the marching horrors that fight in the stead of their unseen masters. With them they bring terrors yet untold. Hurtling forth both insult and injury. Now poison and disease. Being struck down dead by these stalking monsters with their coated or rusted weapons is almost preferable to being wounded. Hidden in the dim distance, Celestia makes ready to stand against yet another nightmare made real. Given over to the reality that is, and should not be. This reality is his for the moment. Their true tormentors concealed in shadow with him.

Such shadows fall where light should be. Their hoofsteps tread where only dread dreams belong. This sort of power has always demanded a hefty price. How much did they pay? What deal could possibly have made all this worthwhile? The irrationality of it defies any logic applied. The bestringed bodies and constructs ranging in all manner of size and capabilities prove a stark contrast to the veritable wall of those determined in action and will to stop them. A fiery demand in the blood that this of all things, is worth dying for. A call to meet the challenge with steel and magic alike. Often together. The slightest of inaccuracies in their foes assaults giving only the tiniest hint of actual weakness. There are no heroes here.

Only soldiers and those doing what is right by throwing themselves on the line in whatever way, meager as it might be. The mightiest of blows right down to the most insignificant may tip the balance. The amount of magic being wielded has the very air nearly seeming to boil. The small skirmishes have long since ended, rising once again to a sheer onslaught of unyielding cutting murder akin to some some disturbing song played ever so slightly off-key. Something has been wrong here since the beginning and it only continues to worsen. Could all the dark in the whole world have been summoned to this singular place? This is a thought some come to ponder. What confluence of events brought this hammer down?

The overall silence of their enemy is in high contrast to the battle cries of the living. The shuffling unbroken silence of these creaking wooden constructs is beyond unnerving. At least they can be imagined to be mere machines run amok. Those whose bodies have been stolen to use in this vile manner cannot be ignored. Surely, no one actually deserved that? To be treated as mere playthings by another. If nothing else, this brings the living to a fevered anger. Someone daring to commit this kind of atrocity must be stopped. Every so often something good, grand, great and terrible happens upon this battlefield. Time refuses to tick by any faster, seeming to lock those within these moments into eternities of struggle and torment.

The intensity of battle reaches a pitch and ebbs yet again. The front line in reality only a mere defiant act. The longer their enemy is kept from this prize the more emboldened pony and allied forces feel. A distant rumbling dampens this increase in morale. What more is yet to come striking at them? The real enemy is not here. What is the real enemy? Time itself, perhaps. Each and every tiring second spent keeping this wall of destruction at bay is one more they may use to unleash something worse than all which has come before. The real nature of their foe so unknown it is baffling. The worst thought of all, what if they lose? All the death and dying may well be for naught should that fate befall them.

Twilight has found herself standing by the bedside of her own student who has been seriously injured, her head bandaged heavily and held carefully in place by bracing. She shakes her head in some form of disbelief.

"Doctor, will she be alright?" Twilight asked, very worried about her condition. He looked over charts and notes, then slightly nodded. Not the most positive reaction to receive in such a moment.

"Starlight has a very serious concussion and heavy bruising all over. From what you told me if she hadn't of been shielded her neck would've been snapped. She got extremely lucky. I don't think she'll wake for some time." He explained.

"Will she be alright?" Twilight asked a second time.

"Will any of us be?...I'm sorry..I.." He shook bodily a little.

"Doctor." Twilight said authoritatively. He looked like he snapped out of a bad dream or something.

She gave him a tight hug for a moment at which he nearly blanched, then sagged against her.

"You and everyone are doing wonderfully. Don't give up on us now. Okay?" She looked him in the eye. He coughed.

"Uh. Yes. You're right. I apologize. There's just so many.." He swallowed hard and huffed heavily.

"It's not on you to save them all, doctor. Just do your best, so the others can rest in peace. That's all I ask." She smiled at him broadly. That seemed to give him a much needed jolt of confidence. He nodded several times.

"I know I'm leaving them in good hooves." Twilight said as she turned to exit. She took a long moment looking out into the dim suffocating the entire town in false night. It was not supposed to be this way. Never ever this way. Pulling herself out of her own ill reverie she almost trotted back to where command formerly was positioned. No. Wrong way. They were forced to reposition after being nearly lost in that last attack. Somewhere out there, Twilight could feel Celestia calling on all the power she possessed. All of it.

"That can't be good." She muttered to herself, readying for whatever calamitous sequence of events was about to befall them yet again. For whatever reason, Celestia wanted to face this one alone. Did she know something about it, as Luna had with the last? Over and over this happened.

"Here we go again. Be careful, Celestia." Twilight looked in on the commander. He looked as though older than when he arrived a mere half-week ago. The poor fellow was so worn. She knew the feeling. Twilight gazed off in the direction where her former mentor was.

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All around the mulberry bush..